[caption id="attachment_69245" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The success of broadcaster Gay Byrne’s campaign on road safety should be tried on the issue of obesity, says a Limerick politician."]
MAYO - ARCHEOLOGIST UPSET AT ‘HENGE’
As Mayo County Council prepares to make its decision on whether the controversial “Achill-henge” development on a hilltop in Pollagh should be classed as an exempted development, an Achill-based archeologist has spoken out against the structure.
Theresa McDonald, managing director of the Achill Archaeological Field School, told the Mayo News that there may well be a prehistoric archeological site less than half a kilometer from the site,” she told. “It is mostly covered by bog, as are a lot of sites in Ireland.”
The Achill-henge project is the work of controversial developer Joe McNamara, a native of the island now resident in Galway. McNamara, who is said to owe Anglo Irish Bank €3.5 million, gained national notoriety when he drove a cement mixer against the gates of Leinster House in Dublin.
The Irish Times reported in November the concrete structure on Pollagh “is nearly 4.5 meters high, 30 meters in diameter and close to 100 meters in circumference.
“Observers have speculated that the structure would synchronize with the sunrise on the solstices and the equinoxes.
“Those close to the project say the sun will rise and shine through the gaps between the pillars to light up a centerpiece, which has yet to be revealed,” the report said.
But McDonald isn’t impressed. She told the Mayo News: “There was also an old railway line from Slieve Mor going through the site of the so-called ‘henge’ to Purteen Harbour, that’s gone now because of the unauthorized development.”
TIPPERARY - LOCALS ‘FURIOUS’ AT POTHOLES
Councilors this week voiced concern about a marked deteriorating of roads in North Tipperary, the Nenagh Guardian reports.
The elected members in the Newport Electoral Area at their meeting in Nenagh on Tuesday said the roads in their area have deteriorated significantly over the winter months. They said local communities were furious over the worsening state of roads.
Newport Area Committee Chairman Councilor John Rocky McGrath, independent, said councilors were taking the brunt over the council’s failure to tackle potholed roads.
“It has never been a worse time to be a councilor. People do not have the patience they had a few years ago, but I do not blame them,” McGrath said. “We know how bad things are; my own car is showing the signs of it.”
Fianna Fail Councilor John Carroll said there had been a gradual depletion in the numbers of road workers employed by the council over the past number of years, the effects of which were now coming home to roost.
“We are talking about promoting tourism in North Tipperary, but how do we do that if our minor roads in scenic places like Portroe and Ballina-Killaloe are being let go?” Carroll asked.
Newport Area Engineer Michael Hayes said staff to carry out the works was limited. However, six temporary staff would be taken on in the Newport electoral area shortly to help tackle the problem. He said compounding the worsening road situation was the fact that a patching machine owned by the council was out of order. A similar machine was now being acquired from the private sector.
Councilor Jonathan Meaney, of the Labour Party, said all Newport area councilors had received a letter from residents living between Mount Kinnane Cross to Springfield Cross were the roadway was pockmarked with “pothole upon pothole.”
Chairman McGrath said the road at Ballymackeogh was “absolutely embarrassing and also in the Cragg area.”
He added: “I drive on some of the roads in Glown and Killoscully. The holes in the roads are desperate up there. We need to prioritize these areas first. I don’t want to be going on like a parrot about this, but we need to sort it out.”
LIMERICK - ‘TAX VIDEO GAMES, LOSE WEIGHT’
At a time of year when we are all trying to lose a few pounds Deputy Patrick O’Donovan is proposing putting euros on the price of video games to combat the growing obesity problem, the Limerick Leader reports.
When the former teacher was doing his training one of his pupils was a 7 year-old boy weighing nearly 150 pounds.
“He couldn’t physically fit in to the desk, his parents couldn’t get a uniform to fit him. There are children going in to hospitals where the only remedy is a gastric bypass,” said O’Donovan, who has focused childhood and adult obesity since he was elected a TD.
“Twenty five per cent of three year-olds are obese, one third are overweight. The way we are heading at the moment we are going to be the most overweight country in the world,” the Fine Gael TD said.
The annual cost to the exchequer of obesity related diseases is €4 billion, according to the deputy.
“The rate that we are getting bigger is frightening. Type 2 diabetes is at epidemic proportions in Ireland. The cost to the exchequer is enormous from heart disease, obesity related cancer, the psychological damage, mental health etc. It’s a huge, huge problem and it’s not being taken seriously at all,” O’Donovan said.
“Operation Transformation is on at the moment and it’s great but it a January phenomenon and by February it is forgotten about,” he adds.
As for his “health levy” on video games, he said: “I will be bringing it up with the Minister for Health in the new Dail in light of all the games that have been sold during Christmas. They should be viewed as a treat, but some children and adults are spending days in front of their Playstations, Wiis or X-Boxes or whatever.
“They are vegetating in front of them and there is an addiction there that needs to be looked at. I know it would be massively controversial,” said O’Donovan.
He would like a prominent figure to lead a campaign like Gay Byrne does on road safety.
“We don’t need a politician like Pat O‘Donovan telling people we need to get slimmer; we need an obesity ambassador,” he said. “Gay Byrne and the Road Safery Authority hammering away and the proof is last year we had the lowest road fatalities since records began.”
WATERFORD - SENIORS TARGETED IN ATTACKS
Home burglaries, many involving elderly people being terrorized by armed raiders, have become an almost daily occurrence across Waterford city in recent months.
One victim who spoke confidentially to the Munster Express described how a break-in has left him terrified in his own home: “It’s the most awful feeling, to think that someone had been watching you, watching your house”, said the man, who returned home some weeks ago to discover his home had been burgled. “God knows how often they were watching me before they broke-in. They went thorough everything, all my personal belongings were thrown all over the floor and trampled on. Now I can’t sleep at night? It’s an ordeal. I feel like my home is not my own any more.”
CORK - SEAFORD LEADER INVESTS IN SALMON FARM
A world leader in the seafood industry, Marine Harvest, plans to invest €3.5 million to develop a new organic salmon farm site at Shot Head in Bantry Bay.
Speaking on behalf of the Irish subsidiary, Marine Harvest Ireland, Catherine McManus, a technical manager with the company, said: “The investment is part of a €14 million upgrade of its 16aquaculture sites around the coast.”
She said the overall investment would ensure that the company’s Irish operations benefit from
“the most up-to-date technological advances,
and would include “the upgrading of equipment and operational practices, as well as the continuing development of a nationwide stocking, harvesting, fallowing and rotation to international best practices.”
The company – which is present in all major salmon farming regions in the world, but also offers valued-added products, smoked seafood and organic produce – has lodged an application with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for an Aquaculture Licence and a Foreshore License for the proposed Shot Head development.
Locally, the Fianna Fáil Senator Denis O’Donovan welcomed the initiative saying: “I have always supported the aquaculture and mariculture industry provided it complies with the best practice and does not impede the traditional rights of inshore fishermen.
“Having met with representatives of the company on Tuesday,’ the senator said. “I am satisfied that this initiative will bring jobs to the Beara peninsula, which in these difficult times is most welcome."
